I ran out of Dr. Bonner’s Magic Soap a few days ago. Well, I’ve not run out exactly; there’s a little bit left, but I want to have that little bit so at some point in the next few months I can have one more shower using it. It’s great soap. Fair trade, organic, 100% vegan, castile soap. And it’s got lots and lots of writing on the side, so you’ll never be stuck for something to read. Now I’m using some Axe shower gel. (Is Axe still called Lynx in the UK?) It’s blue with little silver-y dots in it. It’s called Axe Shock and claims to be “Glacier Water & Deep Sea Mint,” whatever the heck that means. The 236 ml Dr. Bonner’s bottle lasted me about two months. I’m already about a quarter of the way through this 250 ml bottle of Axe stuff.

And I just used the last of my Rite Aid cotton buds (yes, I did use it to clean my ears). I’ve got about a week’s worth of both Colgate toothpaste and Right Guard deodorant remaining. (These products all seem to have long names or subtitles, this is what it says on the front of the deodorant: RIGHT GUARD® XTREME STEALTH SOLID™ ANTI-PERSPIRANT DEODORANT ARCTIC FRESH™. On the front of the toothpaste tube it says all of this: Colgate® Fluoride Toothpaste, MaxFresh®, WITH MINI BREATH STRIPS, WHITENING, CLEAN MINT, Fluoride Toothpaste, Infused with Dissolvable Mini Breath Strips, Experience a Whole New Dimension of Freshness. Just a bunch of carefully-chosen words thrown at a wall to try to convince us we won’t have stinking armpits or teeth, isn’t it?) The toothpaste, like the Axe shower gel has little silver-y bits in it. They, I assume, are the “mini breath strips.” Did market research find that somehow we like glitter in our toiletries?

Anyway, my point is that I find replacing basic toiletries to be the harshest reminder that the last part of one’s time in another country is over. Funny how it can be the smallest things, huh?

6 Responses to 'Toiletries'

I know a chap who's so stubborn about what he'll put on his brush that when someone gave him a £50 Boots voucher he went straight there and bought 20 tubes of his favourite toothpaste! It's this weird herbal eucalyptusy stuff…I don't get it.